In a significant political development, former Union Home Minister and senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, aged 83, has officially announced his retirement from electoral politics ahead of the 2024 national elections. Shinde, who embarked on his political journey in the early 1970s, declared that his daughter, Praniti Shinde, would be his successor.
“I am publicly saying that Praniti Tai (Shinde) will contest for Lok Sabha elections (Solapur Lok Sabha constituency). I am more like a retired person and trying to help wherever required,” Shinde said.
Praniti Shinde, aged 42, is a three-time legislator from the Solapur city central assembly seat. Notably, Sushil Kumar Shinde had previously expressed his intention to make way for his daughter after the 2014 elections, a promise he reiterated during the campaigning by announcing it as his last election. He faced electoral defeats in the Solapur constituency in 2014 amid the Modi wave and sought another attempt in 2019, only to experience another loss in a triangular contest to Jaisidhesvar Swami of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sushil Kumar Shinde's Political Journey
Sushil Kumar Shinde, a three-term Member of Parliament from the Solapur Lok Sabha seat, served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra briefly from January 2003 to November 2004. Following his tenure, he was appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh and held the post until 2006. Upon stepping down, he was inducted into the Union Cabinet, where he served as the Power Minister in the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In 2012, he was entrusted with the vital Home Ministry, succeeding P. Chidambaram, who had been brought in as Home Minister in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and subsequently moved to the Finance Ministry.
Sushil Kumar Shinde's decision to pass the political baton to his daughter marks a notable transition in Maharashtra politics.